US carriers to consider cutting flights, record snow halts New Zealand travel, Liverpool puts in bid to host "turnaround" cruises, and more. Here are the stories that travellers are buzzing about:

US airlines may have to reduce flightsThe faltering economy
has made consumers more hesitant to spend money, and as fuel prices rise and
the end of the peak tourist season approaches, US
carriers may have to cut back on flights. Airlines have raised fares on
domestic flights at least eight times this year, but have failed in their most
recent attempts to hike prices. The current climate likely will make it
difficult for airlines to raise fares again any time soon, so carriers could
look to save money by reducing flight frequencies, cutting some routes and
replacing smaller planes with larger ones, all of which reduce available seat
capacity, Bloomberg reports.
New Zealand experiences “once-in-a-lifetime” snowfall
Travel in the air and on the ground has been halted in much of the country, as
the worst
snowstorm in decades has hit both islands. Flights at Christchurch,
Queenstown and Dunedin have been cancelled, with around 150 passengers stranded
at Dunedin Airport overnight. A reported 8mm of covered the runways at
Christchurch airport, snow and ice have forced the closure of roads throughout
the country, and thousands of people have lost power. Snow even reached
downtown Aukland for the first
time since the 1930s. The cold spell is expected to continue through
Thursday.

Liverpool fighting for bigger share of cruise market
The UK's lucrative cruise industry could experience a shakeup if Liverpool gets
its way. Liverpool has put in a bid to transition
its cruise terminal -- currently permitted for only
"port-of-call" visits -- into a port with the ability to host cruises
for "turnaround" trips, meaning ships could begin and end their journeys
there. Other port owners fear that this would give Liverpool an unfair
competitive advantage in the £2bn industry, as a significant number of ships
could change their routes to take advantage of one of the few cities in the
world where liners can berth near the city centre, the Guardian reports.

Quotable
"It is a dismal experience that you simply put up with because you have to
get from point A to point B. It used to be the part of the trip you looked
forward to. As an industry, we've found a way to beat that joy of flying out of
people."

-Virgin America CEO David Cush, in an Associated Press article that explores
how air
travel has changed since 9/11. Changes for the worse include less legroom,
more fees, worse service and, of course, those irksome security lines.